A hotel receptionist who hid inside a bed at a murder scene for two days has been jailed for a minimum of 26 years after claiming he did not know why he killed two young workmates.

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Attila Ban, 32, was given two life sentences at the Old Bailey after being found guilty of murdering fellow receptionists Tibor Vass and Alice Adams, both 20. Both had been stabbed in Ban's flat at the Heathrow hotel where they all worked in August last year.

Police were called after Ban updated his Facebook wall saying: "I would like to wake up from this nightmare" and all three failed to turn up for work.

Ban was found after two days hiding under a bed where Mr Vass's body had been laid.

The Hungarian, voted employee of the year in 2010 at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, had cut his way out of the divan and attempted to kill himself. He was found lying on another bed in the room after the body of Mr Vass had been removed.

Richard Whittam, QC, prosecuting, said: "It became apparent that he had been hiding in the divan base of the double bed. He must have been there throughout the attendance of the pathologist, the removal of the bodies and the examination of the scene by crime-scene examiners."

The mothers of both victims begged Ban to tell them what happened after he was found guilty of the murders last month.

But Michael Birnbaum, QC, for Ban, said: "This remains a baffling case. The two people he killed were his friends. He killed them both for reasons which remain obscure. He genuinely cannot remember what triggered the killings."

Doctors had suggested that openly gay Ban may have harboured an infatuation for Mr Vass who may have been starting a relationship with Miss Adams.